Fix emergency response system

Waterloo Region Record

Will someone have to die a needless death before Waterloo Region fixes its emergency dispatch system?

Will the public demand real change only after a fire truck arrives too late to save someone’s home from burning to the ground? And will our elected leaders act only after paramedics wheel a corpse — instead of a living body — away from an accident scene that their ambulance took too long to reach?

We already know what must be done. A 2009 study concluded that a streamlined dispatch system could shave more than two precious minutes off the time it takes to get emergency vehicles to people in need.

Then, after a fatal helicopter crash one year ago, a report to Waterloo regional council urged the politicians to put police and fire dispatchers under one roof and try to get provincial ambulance dispatchers to join this centralized facility. Now, months after that report was issued, there seem to be no firm plans or budget for this to happen.

Next week, former regional police chief Larry Gravill is scheduled to address a meeting to which all municipal politicians — regional, city and township — have been invited. He will update the leaders on the progress that has been made toward unifying the local emergency dispatch system.

If the regional politicians have lost interest in the issue and the three cities refuse to co-operate, the hopes for a unified police and fire dispatching system will die. And if the provincial government won’t help out, the public will continue to be denied the efficient, effective emergency response it deserves. This shouldn’t be allowed to happen.

The problem is over-government. Waterloo Region is served by no fewer than four separate emergency dispatch centres based in four different places and working for four different governments. Police dispatchers respond to all 911 emergency calls. From there, the calls for help go out to paramedics and firefighters.

The limitations of this cumbersome and inefficient arrangement became painfully obvious on Nov. 28, 2011 when a helicopter crashed into a drainage pond at the Region of Waterloo International Airport shortly after taking off.

Firefighters and ambulances didn’t know the correct location of the crash for up to 12 minutes after police had received the information. This delayed firefighters from reaching the scene. And the only reason it didn’t delay the ambulance was that, because the vehicle had come from such a great distance, it had received the correct information by the time it got to the airport.

It’s true that the helicopter’s critically injured pilot, Tiffany Hanna, would not have survived even if firefighters had reached her more quickly. But student pilot Scott Puillandre, who was injured in the crash, might have received some help before he did. And it’s easy to imagine a different scenario — if the wrecked helicopter had caught fire, for instance — in which the firefighters’ delayed arrival could have had tragic consequences.

To be fair to the region, progress has been made after the internal review led by Gravill. The region is in the process of linking the 911 dispatch directly to the airport. And better training is now being done at the 911 dispatch centre to ensure that all responders get all the updates on emergency locations.

But none of this addresses the biggest problem — the fractured system. The No. 1 recommendation from Gravill was a unified emergency dispatch system. That recommendation must not be left on the shelf in a bureaucrat’s office to collect dust. It should be put into action so it can save lives. Next week our municipal politicians should roll up their sleeves and start getting this job done.